1.
DG Flugzeugbau DG-800
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The DG Flugzeugbau DG-800 series is a family of 15 metre and 18 metre single-seat gliders and motor gliders produced by Glaser-Dirks since 1993 and by DG Flugzeugbau GmbH after 1997. It is the successor to the DG-400 and the DG-600 models, the DG-800 was planned primarily as a powered self-launching sailplane. In the meantime it has spawned many variants, differentiated by the type of powerplant, the newest model is the DG-808C, a self launching sailplane with Solo engine and the new designed DEI-NT Engine Control System. There are also unpowered variants, the DG-800S and DG-808S, aimed at competition flying and these pure glider variants have a shorter and lighter fuselage built in the moulds of the DG-600 and allow a broader range of wing loadings
2.
Glider (sailplane)
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A sailplane or glider is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Sailplanes are aerodynamically streamlined and are capable of soaring in rising air, sailplanes benefit from producing the least drag for any given amount of lift, and this is best achieved with long, thin wings, a fully faired narrow cockpit and a slender fuselage. Aircraft with these features are able to climb efficiently in rising air produced by thermals or hills, sailplanes can glide long distances at high speed with a minimum loss of height in between. Gliders have rigid wings and either skids or undercarriage, in contrast hang gliders and paragliders use the pilots feet for the start of the launch and for the landing. These latter types are described in articles, though their differences from sailplanes are covered below. Gliders are usually launched by winch or aerotow, though other methods, auto tow, all sailplanes soar, but some gliders do not soar and are simply engineless aircraft towed by another aircraft to a desired destination and then cast off for landing. Military gliders are only, and are abandoned after landing, having served their purpose. Motor gliders are gliders with engines which can be used for extending a flight and even, in some cases, Some high-performance motor gliders may have an engine-driven retractable propeller which can be used to sustain flight. Other motor gliders have enough thrust to launch themselves before the engine is retracted and are known as self-launching gliders, another type is the self-launching touring motor glider, where the pilot can switch the engine on and off in flight without retracting their propellers. Sir George Cayleys gliders achieved brief wing-borne hops from around 1849, in the 1890s Otto Lilienthal built gliders using weight shift for control. In the early 1900s the Wright Brothers built gliders using movable surfaces for control, in 1903 they successfully added an engine. After World War I gliders were built for sporting purposes in Germany, the sporting use of gliders rapidly evolved in the 1930s and is now their main application. As their performance improved, gliders began to be used for cross-country flying, in 1930, pilot Frank Hawks flew the Texaco Eaglet with tow plane from San Diego to New York over eight days, helping to popularize the activity in the United States. Early gliders had no cockpit and the pilot sat on a seat located just ahead of the wing. These were known as gliders and they were usually launched from the tops of hills. To enable gliders to soar more effectively than primary gliders, the designs minimized drag, gliders now have very smooth, narrow fuselages and very long, narrow wings with a high aspect ratio and winglets. The early gliders were mainly of wood with metal fastenings, stays. Later fuselages made of fabric-covered steel tube were married to wood and fabric wings for lightness, New materials such as carbon-fiber, fiber glass and Kevlar have since been used with computer-aided design to increase performance
3.
French Alps
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The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, at 4,808 metres, Mont Blanc, on the French-Italian border, is the highest mountain in the Alps, and the highest Western European mountain. Notable towns in the French Alps include Grenoble, Chamonix, Annecy, Chambéry, Évian-les-Bains, the largest connected ski areas are, Les Trois Vallées,338 slopes,600 km of pistes. Portes du Soleil,288 slopes,650 km of slopes not entirely connected, paradiski, Champagny-en-Vanoise,239 slopes,420 km of slopes. Via Lattea,214 slopes,400 km of slopes, Évasion Mont-Blanc,183 slopes,420 km of slopes not entirely connected. Espace Killy,137 slopes,300 km of slopes, grand Massif,134 slopes,265 km of slopes. Les Aravis,133 slopes,220 km of slopes not entirely connected, Les Grandes Rousses,117 slopes,236 km of slopes. Serre Chevalier,111 slopes,250 km of slopes, La Forêt Blanche,104 slopes,180 km of slopes. Les Sybelles,96 slopes,310 km of slopes, valloire and Valmeinier,83 slopes,150 km of slopes. Grand Domaine,82 slopes,150 km of slopes Espace San Bernardo,73 slopes,150 km of slopes, Les Deux Alpes and La Grave,69 slopes,220 km of slopes. The other large ski areas are, Le Val dArly,150 km of slopes, in the winter, these include skiing and snowboarding as well as alternatives such as snowshoeing, sledging. There is a range of activities that happen such as gliding which most happens during the summer months. Summer activities include hiking, mountaineering, biking and rock climbing, roger Frison-Roche, Les montagnes de la terre. Sergio Marazzi, Atlante Orografico delle Alpi, pavone Canavese, Priuli & Verlucca editori. ISBN 978-88-8068-273-8 Sergio Marazzi, La Suddivisione orografica internazionale unificata del Sistema Alpino - article with maps and illustrations, PDF
4.
Aircraft
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An aircraft is a machine that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the lift of an airfoil. The human activity that surrounds aircraft is called aviation, crewed aircraft are flown by an onboard pilot, but unmanned aerial vehicles may be remotely controlled or self-controlled by onboard computers. Aircraft may be classified by different criteria, such as type, aircraft propulsion, usage. Each of the two World Wars led to technical advances. Consequently, the history of aircraft can be divided into five eras, Pioneers of flight, first World War,1914 to 1918. Aviation between the World Wars,1918 to 1939, Second World War,1939 to 1945. Postwar era, also called the jet age,1945 to the present day, aerostats use buoyancy to float in the air in much the same way that ships float on the water. They are characterized by one or more large gasbags or canopies, filled with a relatively low-density gas such as helium, hydrogen, or hot air, which is less dense than the surrounding air. When the weight of this is added to the weight of the aircraft structure, a balloon was originally any aerostat, while the term airship was used for large, powered aircraft designs – usually fixed-wing. In 1919 Frederick Handley Page was reported as referring to ships of the air, in the 1930s, large intercontinental flying boats were also sometimes referred to as ships of the air or flying-ships. – though none had yet been built, the advent of powered balloons, called dirigible balloons, and later of rigid hulls allowing a great increase in size, began to change the way these words were used. Huge powered aerostats, characterized by an outer framework and separate aerodynamic skin surrounding the gas bags, were produced. There were still no fixed-wing aircraft or non-rigid balloons large enough to be called airships, then several accidents, such as the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, led to the demise of these airships. Nowadays a balloon is an aerostat and an airship is a powered one. A powered, steerable aerostat is called a dirigible, sometimes this term is applied only to non-rigid balloons, and sometimes dirigible balloon is regarded as the definition of an airship. Non-rigid dirigibles are characterized by a moderately aerodynamic gasbag with stabilizing fins at the back and these soon became known as blimps. During the Second World War, this shape was adopted for tethered balloons, in windy weather
5.
Gliding flight
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Gliding flight is heavier-than-air flight without the use of thrust, the term volplaning also refers to this mode of flight in animals. It is employed by gliding animals and by such as gliders. This mode of flight involves flying a greater distance horizontally than vertically, although the human application of gliding flight usually refers to aircraft designed for this purpose, most powered aircraft are capable of gliding without engine power. As with sustained flight, gliding generally requires the application of an airfoil, such as the wings on aircraft or birds, however, gliding can be achieved with a flat wing, as with a simple paper plane, or even with card-throwing. However some aircraft with lifting bodies and animals such as the snake can achieve gliding flight without any wings by creating a flattened surface underneath. The types of aircraft that are used for sport and recreation are classified as gliders and these two latter types are often foot-launched. The design of all three types enables them to climb using rising air and then to glide before finding the next source of lift. When done in gliders, the sport is known as gliding, for foot-launched aircraft, it is known as hang gliding and paragliding. Radio-controlled gliders with fixed wings are also soared by enthusiasts, in addition to motor gliders, some powered aircraft are designed for routine glides during part of their flight, usually when landing after a period of a powered flight. See list List of airline flights that required gliding flight, a number of animals have separately evolved gliding many times, without any single ancestor. Birds in particular use gliding flight to minimise their use of energy, the great frigatebird in particular is capable of continuous flights up to several weeks. To assist gliding, some mammals have evolved a structure called the patagium and this is a membranous structure found stretched between a range of body parts. It is most highly developed in bats, for similar reasons to birds, bats can glide efficiently. In bats, the forming the surface of the wing is an extension of the skin of the abdomen that runs to the tip of each digit. This form of locomotion, is common in tropical regions such as Borneo and Australia. In flying squirrels, the stretches from the fore- to the hind-limbs along the length of each side of the torso. In the sugar glider, the patagia extend between the finger of each hand to the first toe of each foot. This creates an aerofoil enabling them to glide 50 metres or more and this gliding flight is regulated by changing the curvature of the membrane or moving the legs and tail
6.
Motor glider
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A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is, a fixed-wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion, capable of sustained soaring flight without thrust from the means of propulsion. In the US, a powered glider may be certificated for up to two occupants, up to 850 kg maximum weight, and with a ratio of weight to wing span squared of 3 kg/m2. Similar requirements exist in European JAA/EASA regulations, at a weight of 750 kg. In 1935, an occasional or auxiliary motor that could be retracted was suggested by Sir John Carden and this was incorporated into the Carden-Baynes Auxiliary that first flew on 8 August of the same year. Most motor gliders are equipped with a propeller, which may be fixed, feathering, Motor with fixed or full feathering propellers are generally classified as Touring Motor Gliders. TMGs can take off and cruise like an airplane or soar with power off and they are fitted with front-mounted engines, similar to a small airplane. The large wingspans of TMGs provide a moderate gliding performance, not as good as that of unpowered gliders, however TMGs are more efficient than conventional light aircraft. Most TMGs are designed with engines of 80 to 100 hp, most have fuel tanks capable of holding between 50 and 100 liters of fuel, giving a range under power of up to 450 nautical miles. Modern TMGs like the Phoenix Air Phoenix are capable of higher speeds, some TMGs are equipped with folding wings to allow them to fit in standard small airplane T-hangars. Tow hooks are unnecessary, since aircraft with self-launch ability do not require access to winch or tow plane for launching like a conventional glider. Some TMGs, like the Europa or the Phoenix, can also be supplied with interchangeable wings or wingtips so that they can be flown as a touring aircraft as well as a TMG. The landing gear configuration on TMGs usually incorporates two fixed main wheels, allowing it to be taxied on the ground without a wing walker, since the additional drag of the stopped propeller and landing gear reduces their gliding performance, TMGs are seldom used in competition. The retractable propeller is mounted on a mast that rotates up and forward out of the fuselage, aft of the cockpit. The fuselage has engine bay doors open and close automatically. The engine may be near the top or bottom of the mast, unlike TMGs, most gliders with retractable propellers are also fitted with a tow-hook for aero-towing or ground launch. They have a retractable main wheel on the fuselage like most unpowered gliders. Sustainer motor gliders must be launched like a glider
7.
Lift (soaring)
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Lift is a meteorological phenomenon used as an energy source by soaring aircraft and soaring birds. The most common application of lift is in sport and recreation. The three air sports that use soaring flight are, gliding, hang gliding and paragliding, thermals are columns of rising air that are formed on the ground through the warming of the surface by sunlight. If the air contains enough moisture, the water will condense from the rising air, thermal lift is often used by birds, such as raptors, vultures and storks. Although thermal lift was known to the Wright Brothers in 1901 and it was not until about 1930 that the use of thermals for soaring in gliders became commonplace. Once a thermal is encountered, the flies in circles to keep within the thermal, so gaining altitude before flying off to the next thermal. Climb rates depend on conditions, but rates of several meters per second are common, thermals can also be formed in a line usually because of the wind or the terrain, creating cloud streets. These can allow flying straight while climbing in continuous lift, when the air has little moisture or when an inversion stops the warm air from rising high enough for the moisture to condense, thermals do not create cumulus clouds. Typical locations to find thermals are over towns, freshly ploughed fields and asphalt roads, occasionally thermals are caused by the exhaust gases from power stations or by fires. As it requires rising heated air, thermalling is only effective in mid-latitudes from spring into late summer, during winter the solar heat can only create weak thermals, but ridge and wave lift can still be used during this period. Ridge lift, or Orographic lift, is caused by rising air on the side of a slope. Ridge lift is used extensively by sea birds and by aircraft, in places where a steady wind blows, a ridge may allow virtually unlimited time aloft. With winds of 20 to 25 knots, it is possible for aircraft to soar at an altitude up to twice the height of the obstacle, ridge lift can also be augmented by thermals when the slopes also face the sun. Lee waves occur when a wind of 25 knots blows over a mountain, provided that there is a steady increase in wind strength with altitude without a significant change in direction, standing waves may be created. They were discovered by a pilot, Wolf Hirth, in 1933. These waves reach heights much greater than the original obstruction and so can permit gliders to climb to the stratosphere, pilots use supplementary oxygen to avoid hypoxia because gliders do not have pressurized cockpits. This lift is often marked by long, stationary lenticular clouds lying perpendicular to the wind, the current world distance record of 3,008 km by Klaus Ohlmann was also flown using mountain waves in South America. A rare wave phenomenon is known as Morning Glory, a roll cloud producing strong lift, pilots near Australias Gulf of Carpentaria make use of it in springtime
8.
Gliding
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The word soaring is also used for the sport. Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s, initially the objective was to increase the duration of flights but soon pilots attempted cross-country flights away from the place of launch. Improvements in aerodynamics and in the understanding of phenomena have allowed greater distances at higher average speeds. Long distances are now flown using any of the sources of rising air, ridge lift, thermals. When conditions are favourable, experienced pilots can now fly hundreds of kilometres before returning to their home airfields, some competitive pilots fly in races around pre-defined courses. These gliding competitions test pilots abilities to make best use of weather conditions as well as their flying skills. Local and national competitions are organized in countries, and there are biennial World Gliding Championships. Techniques to maximize a gliders speed around the task in a competition have been developed, including the optimum speed to fly, navigation using GPS. If the weather deteriorates pilots are unable to complete a cross-country flight. Consequently, they may need to land elsewhere, perhaps in a field, powered-aircraft and winches are the two most common means of launching gliders. These and other methods require assistance and facilities such as airfields, tugs. These are usually provided by gliding clubs who also train new pilots, the development of heavier-than-air flight in the half century between Sir George Cayleys coachman in 1853 and the Wright brothers in 1903 mainly involved gliders. With the active support of the German government, there were 50,000 glider pilots by 1937, the first German gliding competition was held at the Wasserkuppe in 1920, organized by Oskar Ursinus. The best flight lasted two minutes and set a distance record of 2 kilometres. Within ten years, it had become an event in which the achieved durations. In 1931, Gunther Grönhoff flew 272 kilometres on the front of a storm from Munich to Kadaň in Western Czechoslovakia, in the 1930s, gliding spread to many other countries. In the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin gliding was a demonstration sport, a glider, the Olympia, was developed in Germany for the event, but World War II intervened. By 1939 the major gliding records were held by Russians, including a record of 748 kilometres
9.
Hang gliding
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Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorized foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered with synthetic sailcloth to form a wing, typically the pilot is in a harness suspended from the airframe, and controls the aircraft by shifting body weight in opposition to a control frame. Early hang gliders had a low ratio, so pilots were restricted to gliding down small hills. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and national airspace governing organizations control some aspects of hang gliding. Obtaining the safety benefits of being instructed is highly recommended, the earliest forms of gliding had existed in China. By the end of the sixth century A. D. the Chinese had managed to build kites large and it was only a matter of time before someone decided to simply remove the kite strings and see what happened. Most early glider designs did not ensure safe flight, the problem was that early pioneers did not sufficiently understand the underlying principles that made a birds wing work. Starting in the 1880s technical and scientific advancements were made that led to the first truly practical gliders, otto Lilienthal built controllable gliders in the 1890s, with which he could ridge soar. His rigorously documented work influenced later designers, making Lilienthal one of the most influential early aviation pioneers and his aircraft was controlled by weight shift and is similar to a modern hang glider. Hang gliding saw a stiffened flexible wing hang glider in 1904, in 1910 in Breslau, the triangle control frame with hang glider pilot hung behind the triangle in a hang glider, was evident in a gliding clubs activity. In April 1909, a article by Carl S. Volmer Jensen with a biplane hang glider in 1940 called VJ-11 allowed safe three-axis control of a foot-launched hang glider. In 1960-1962 Barry Hill Palmer adapted the flexible wing concept to make foot-launched hang gliders with four different control arrangements, in 1963 Mike Burns adapted the flexible wing to build a towable kite-hang glider he called Skiplane. Since then, the Rogallo wing has been the most used airfoil of hang gliders, there are basically two types of sail materials used in hang glider sails, Woven Polyester Fabrics, and Composite Laminated Fabrics made of some combination of polyester film and polyester fibers. Woven polyester sailcloth is a tight weave of small diameter polyester fibers that has been stabilized by the hot-press impregnation of a polyester resin. The resin impregnation is required to provide resistance to distortion and stretch and this resistance is important in maintaining the aerodynamic shape of the sail. Woven polyester provides the best combination of weight and durability in a sail with the best overall handling qualities. Laminated sail materials using polyester film achieve superior performance by using a stretch material that is better at maintaining sail shape but is still relatively light in weight. In most hang gliders, the control is and has achieved using a horizontal bar held by the pilot, also known as triangle control frame
10.
Paragliding
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Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders, lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing comprising a number of interconnected baffled cells. Wing shape is maintained by the lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing. Despite not using an engine, paragliders flight can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometers, by skillful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand meters. Jalbert advanced governable gliding parachutes with multi-cells and controls for lateral glide, in 1954, Walter Neumark predicted a time when a glider pilot would be able to launch himself by running over the edge of a cliff or down a slope. Whether on a holiday in Skye or ski-ing in the Alps. In 1961, the French engineer Pierre Lemoigne produced improved parachute designs that led to the Para-Commander, the PC had cutouts at the rear and sides that enabled it to be towed into the air and steered – leading to parasailing/parascending. He filed US Patent 3131894 on January 10,1963, about that same time, David Barish was developing the sail wing for recovery of NASA space capsules – slope soaring was a way of testing out. After tests on Hunter Mountain, New York, in September 1965, authors Patrick Gilligan and Bertrand Dubuis wrote the first flight manual, The Paragliding Manual in 1985, officially coining the word paragliding. These developments were combined in June 1978 by three friends, Jean-Claude Bétemps, André Bohn and Gérard Bosson, from Mieussy, Haute-Savoie, Bohn followed him and glided down to the football pitch in the valley 1000 metres below. From the 1980s, equipment has continued to improve, and the number of paragliding pilots, the first Paragliding World Championship was held in Verbier, Switzerland, in 1987, though the first officially sanctioned FAI World Championship was held in Kössen, Austria, in 1989. Europe has seen the greatest growth in paragliding, with France alone currently registering over 25,000 active pilots, the paraglider wing or canopy is usually what is known in aeronautical engineering as a ram-air airfoil. Such wings comprise two layers of fabric that are connected to supporting material in such a way as to form a row of cells. By leaving most of the open only at the leading edge, incoming air keeps the wing inflated. When inflated, the wings cross-section has the typical teardrop aerofoil shape, modern paraglider wings are made of high-performance non-porous materials such as ripstop polyester or nylon fabric. In some modern paragliders, especially wings, some of the cells of the leading edge are closed to form a cleaner aerodynamic profile. Holes in the internal ribs allow a flow of air from the open cells to these closed cells to inflate them, and also to the wingtips. The pilot is supported underneath the wing by a network of suspension lines and these start with two sets of risers made of short lengths of strong webbing
11.
Spacecraft
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A spacecraft is a vehicle, or machine designed to fly in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, on a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters space and then returns to the surface, without having gone into an orbit. For orbital spaceflights, spacecraft enter closed orbits around the Earth or around other celestial bodies, robotic spacecraft used to support scientific research are space probes. Robotic spacecraft that remain in orbit around a body are artificial satellites. Only a handful of interstellar probes, such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, orbital spacecraft may be recoverable or not. By method of reentry to Earth they may be divided in non-winged space capsules, Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, the launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments, while the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the Space Age. Apart from its value as a technological first, Sputnik 1 also helped to identify the upper atmospheric layers density and it also provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere. Pressurized nitrogen in the satellites false body provided the first opportunity for meteoroid detection, Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No. 1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR. The satellite travelled at 29,000 kilometers per hour, taking 96.2 minutes to complete an orbit and this altitude is called the Kármán line. In particular, in the 1940s there were several test launches of the V-2 rocket, as of 2016, only three nations have flown manned spacecraft, USSR/Russia, USA, and China. The first manned spacecraft was Vostok 1, which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961, there were five other manned missions which used a Vostok spacecraft. The second manned spacecraft was named Freedom 7, and it performed a sub-orbital spaceflight in 1961 carrying American astronaut Alan Shepard to an altitude of just over 187 kilometers, there were five other manned missions using Mercury spacecraft. Other Soviet manned spacecraft include the Voskhod, Soyuz, flown unmanned as Zond/L1, L3, TKS, China developed, but did not fly Shuguang, and is currently using Shenzhou. Except for the shuttle, all of the recoverable manned orbital spacecraft were space capsules. Manned space capsules The International Space Station, manned since November 2000, is a joint venture between Russia, the United States, Canada and several other countries, some reusable vehicles have been designed only for manned spaceflight, and these are often called spaceplanes. The first example of such was the North American X-15 spaceplane, the first reusable spacecraft, the X-15, was air-launched on a suborbital trajectory on July 19,1963. The first partially reusable spacecraft, a winged non-capsule, the Space Shuttle, was launched by the USA on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarins flight
12.
Military glider
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Military gliders have been used by the military of various countries for carrying troops and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. The one-way nature of the missions meant that they were treated as disposable leading to construction from common, troops landing by glider were referred to as air-landing as opposed to paratroops. Landing by parachute caused the troops to be spread over a large drop-zone and separated from other airdropped equipment, such as vehicles, gliders, on the other hand, could land troops and ancillaries in greater concentrations precisely at the target landing area. Furthermore, the glider, once released at some distance from the target, was effectively silent. Larger gliders were developed to land heavy equipment like anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns, small vehicles, such as jeeps and this heavier equipment made otherwise lightly armed paratroop forces a much more capable force. The Soviets also experimented with ways to light tanks by air, including the Antonov A-40. By the time of the Korean War, helicopters had largely replaced gliders, helicopters have the advantage of being able to extract soldiers, in addition to delivering them to the battlefield with more precision. Also, advances in powered transport aircraft had made, to the extent that even light tanks could be dropped by parachute. Only special forces use gliders for silent, small-scale insertion today, the development of modern gliders was spurred by the Versailles Treaty following World War I, under the terms of which Germany was prohibited from constructing certain high powered airplanes. The early sporting objectives of gliders were quickly overtaken in the Soviet Union and in Germany by military applications, by 1934, the Soviet Union had ten gliding schools and 57,000 glider pilots had gained licences. In 1932, the Soviet Union demonstrated the TsK Komsula, a four-place glider, larger gliders were then developed culminating in an 18-seater at the military institute in Leningrad in 1935. Luftwaffe Colonel Kurt Student visited Moscow as part of the military collaboration programme with the Soviet Union and he reported back to his superiors in Berlin details of a 1,500 man parachute drop and the large transport gliders that he had seen. The Luftwaffe opened a school as a result in 1937. Further field testing convinced Student that a vehicle was needed to deliver the weapons for the lightly armed parachute troops. This idea was dismissed until October 1938 by which time Student had risen to major-general and was appointed Inspector of Airborne Forces. Development of a glider was assigned to Hans Jacobs of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug to develop the DFS230 which could carry 9–10 fully equipped troops or 1,200 kg. Ten gliders landed on the roof of the fortress. Only twenty minutes after landing the force had neutralized the fortress at a cost of six dead, Hitler was anxious to gain maximum publicity and so several foreign attachés were given guided tours of the fortress
13.
Paper plane
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A paper plane, paper aeroplane, paper airplane, paper glider, paper dart or dart is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of folded paper or paperboard. Certainly, manufacture of paper on a widespread scale took place in China 500 BCE and it is impossible to ascertain where and in what form the first paper aircraft were constructed, or even the first paper planes form. The pioneers of powered flight have all studied paper model aircraft in order to design larger machines. Da Vinci wrote of the building of a plane out of parchment, and of testing some of his early ornithopter, an aircraft that flies by flapping wings. Thereafter, Sir George Cayley explored the performance of gliders in the late 19th century. The most significant use of models in aircraft designs were by the Wright brothers between 1899 and 1903, the date of the first powered flight from Kill Devil Hills. The Wrights used a tunnel to gain knowledge of the forces which could be used to control an aircraft in flight. They built numerous paper models, and tested them within their wind tunnel and their paper models were very important in the process of moving on to progressively larger models, kites, gliders and ultimately on to the powered Flyer. In this way, the model plane remains a very important key in the graduation from model to manned heavier-than-air flight. With time, many designers have improved and developed the paper model. One of the earliest known applied modern paper plane was in 1909 and he started to explain, in the course of it he picked up a paper menu and fashioned a small model airplane, without thinking where he was. It landed on the shirtfront of the French Minister of Education, much to the embarrassment of my sister, in 1930 Jack Northrop used paper planes as test models for larger aircraft. There have been many improvements, including velocity, lift, propulsion, style and fashion. Unmodified origami paper aircraft have very poor glide ratios, often not better than 7.5,1 depending on construction and materials. Modification of origami paper gliders can lead to marked improvements in performance, at the cost of weight. Often, increases in wing loading can encourage breakdown of laminar flow over a wing with a hybrid of origami, professors Ninomiya and Mathews developed more directed design strategies in the late 1960s and the 1980s. Previously, paper model aircraft had been designed without an emphasis on performance in flight, by using aerodynamic design, and fluid dynamics, both professors were able to design models that exceeded previous flight performance criteria by a very wide margin. Ranges of flight increased from the typical 10+ meters to 85+ meters, at present, the work of the two professors remains the last serious research work on improving the flight performance of paper model gliders
14.
Ochroma
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Ochroma is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae, containing the sole species Ochroma pyramidale, commonly known as the balsa tree. It is a large, fast-growing tree that can grow up to 30 m tall, balsa wood is a very lightweight material with many uses. Balsa trees are native to southern Brazil and northern Bolivia, up to southern Mexico, a member of the mallow family, O. pyramidale is native to southern Mexico to southern Brazil, but is now found in many other countries. It is a plant, which establishes itself in clearings in forests, either man-made or where trees have fallen. It grows extremely rapidly, up to 90 ft in 10–15 years, the speed of growth accounts for the lightness of the wood, which has a lower density than cork. Trees generally do not live beyond 30 to 40 years, flowers are produced from the third year onwards, typically at the end of the rainy season when few other trees are in flower. The large flowers open in the afternoon and remain open overnight. Each may contain a pool of nectar up to 1 in deep, however most pollination occurs at night. It was once thought that the main pollinators were bats, however recent evidence suggests that two nocturnal arboreal mammals, the kinkajou and the olingo, may be the primary pollinators, ecuador supplies 95% or more of commercial balsa. In recent years, about 60% of the balsa has been plantation-grown in densely packed patches of around 1000 trees per hectare and it is evergreen or dry-season deciduous, with large weakly palmately lobed leaves. Being a deciduous angiosperm, balsa is classified as a hardwood despite the wood itself being very soft and it is the softest commercial hardwood. The trees are harvested after six to 10 years of growth, the name balsa comes from the Spanish word for raft. Balsa lumber is very soft and light, with a coarse, the density of dry balsa wood ranges from 40–340 kg/m3, with a typical density of about 160 kg/m3. The wood of the tree has large cells that are filled with water. This gives the wood a spongy texture and it also makes the wood of the living tree not much lighter than water and barely able to float. For commercial production, the wood is kiln-dried for about two weeks, leaving the hollow and empty. The large volume-to-surface ratio of the resulting thin-walled empty cells gives the wood a large strength-to-weight ratio because the cells are mostly air. Unlike naturally rotted wood, that soon disintegrates in the rainforests where balsa trees grow, however, it also is valued as a component of full-sized light wooden aeroplanes, most notably the World War II de Havilland Mosquito
15.
Early flying machines
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Early flying machines include all forms of aircraft studied or constructed before the development of the modern aeroplane by 1910. The story of modern flight begins more than a century before the first successful manned aeroplane, the Greek legend of Daedalus and Icarus is one of the earliest to come down to us. According to Ovid, Daedalus tied feathers together to mimic the wings of a bird, other ancient legends include the Indian Vimana flying palace or chariot, Ezekiels Chariot, various stories about Magic carpets, and mythical British King Bladud, who conjured up flying wings. Eventually some tried to build real flying devices, typically birdlike wings, in the 1st century AD, Chinese Emperor Wang Mang recruited a specialist scout to be bound with bird feathers, he is claimed to have glided about 100 meters. In 559 AD, Yuan Huangtou is said to have landed safely following an enforced tower jump, in 1010 AD, English monk Eilmer of Malmesbury flew from the tower of Malmesbury Abbey in a primitive glider. Eilmer was said to have flown over 200 yards before landing, breaking both his legs, Eilmer later remarked that the only reason he did not fly further was that he forgot to give his machine a tail. This burst of activity was followed by a lull of several centuries, jumping revived in 1496 with Seccio breaking both arms in Nuremberg. In 1507, John Damian strapped on wings covered with feathers and jumped from the walls of Stirling Castle in Scotland, breaking his thigh. Similar attempts continued until the early 19th century, with never more than partial success, francis Willughbys suggestion, published in 1676, that human legs were more comparable to birds wings in strength than arms, had only occasional influence. As late as 1811, Albrecht Berblinger constructed an ornithopter and jumped into the Danube at Ulm, the kite was invented in China, possibly as far back as the 5th century BC by Mozi and Lu Ban. These leaf kites were constructed by stretching silk over a bamboo framework. The earliest known Chinese kites were flat and often rectangular, later, tailless kites incorporated a stabilizing bowline. Designs often emulated flying insects, birds, and other beasts, some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying. In 549 AD, a made of paper was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources list other uses of kites for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signalling, after its introduction into India, the kite further evolved into the fighter kite. Traditionally these are small, unstable single line flat kites where line tension alone is used for control, Kites also spread throughout Polynesia, as far as New Zealand. Anthropomorphic kites made from cloth and wood were used in ceremonies to send prayers to the gods. By 1634 kites had reached the West, with an illustration of a kite with a tail appearing in Bates Mysteries of nature
16.
Eilmer of Malmesbury
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Eilmer of Malmesbury was an 11th-century English Benedictine monk best known for his early attempt at a gliding flight using wings. Eilmer was a monk of Malmesbury Abbey and is known to have written on astrology, all that is known of him is told in the Gesta regum Anglorum, written by the eminent medieval historian William of Malmesbury in about 1125. Being a fellow monk of the abbey, William almost certainly obtained his account directly from people who knew Eilmer himself when he was an old man. The difficulty lies in that William recorded what Eilmer said not to establish his age, – Youve come, you source of tears to many mothers. It is long since I saw you, but as I see you now you are more terrible. If Eilmer had seen Halleys comet seventy-six years earlier in 989, he could have been born about 984, making him about five or six years old when he first saw the comet, old enough to remember it. However the periodicity of comets was probably unknown in Eilmers time, and so his remark It is long since I saw you could have referred to a different, later comet. Since it is known that Eilmer was an old man in 1066, and that he had made the attempt in his youth. William records that, in Eilmers youth, he had read, but agitated by the violence of the wind and the swirling of air, as well as by the awareness of his rash attempt, he fell, broke both his legs and was lame ever after. He used to relate as the cause of his failure, his forgetting to provide himself a tail. Given the geography of the abbey, his site. Olivers Lane, off the present-day High Street and about 200 metres from the abbey, is reputed locally to be the site where Eilmer landed and that would have taken him over many buildings. Maxwell Woosnams study concluded that he is likely to have descended the steep hill off to the southwest of the abbey. To perform the manoeuvre of gliding downward against the breeze, utilizing both gravity and the wind, Eilmer employed an apparatus somewhat resembling a gliding bird. However being unable to balance himself forward and backwards, as does a bird by slight movements of its wings, head and legs, Eilmer could not have achieved true soaring flight in any event, but he might have glided down in safety if he had had a tail. Afterwards, Eilmer remarked that the cause of his crash was that he had forgotten to provide himself with a tail. Other than Williams account of the flight, nothing has survived of Eilmers lifetime work as a monk, more recently, Maxwell Woosnam in 1986 examined in more detail the technical aspects such as materials, glider angles, and wind effects. Eilmer typified the spirit of medieval enthusiasts who developed small drawstring toy helicopters, windmills
17.
William of Malmesbury
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William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede, indeed William may well have been the most learned man in twelfth-century Western Europe. William was born about 1095 or 1096 in Wiltshire and his father was Norman and his mother English. He spent his life in England and his adult life as a monk at Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire. Though the education William received at Malmesbury Abbey included a smattering of logic and physics, moral philosophy, the evidence shows that Malmesbury had first-hand knowledge of at least four hundred works by two hundred-odd authors. Williams obvious respect for Bede is apparent even within the preface of his Gesta Regum Anglorum, in fulfilment of this idea, William completed in 1125 his Gesta Regum Anglorum, consciously patterned on Bede, which spanned from AD 449–1120. He later edited and expanded it up to the year 1127, releasing a dedicated to Robert. This second edition of the Gesta Regum, disclosing in his thoughts the mellowing of age, is now considered one of the great histories of England. His anxiety for money is the thing on which he can deservedly be blamed. I have here no excuse whatever to offer, unless it be, as one has said, that of necessity he must fear many, Williams first edition of the book was followed by the Gesta Pontificum Anglorum in 1125. He stayed at Glastonbury Abbey for a time, composing On the Antiquity of the Glastonbury Church for his friend, around this time, William formed an acquaintance with Bishop Roger of Salisbury, who had a castle at Malmesbury. It is possible that this acquaintance, coupled with the reception of his Gesta Regum earned him the offered position of Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey in 1140. William, however, preferred his duties as librarian and scholar and his one public appearance was made at the council of Winchester in 1141, in which the clergy declared for the Empress Matilda. This work breaks off in 1142, with a promise that it would be continued. Presumably William died before he could redeem his pledge, William also wrote a history of his abbey and several saints lives. William is considered by many, including John Milton, to be one of the best English historians of his time, a strong Latin stylist, he shows literary and historiographical instincts which are, for his time, remarkably sound. He is an authority of considerable value from 1066 onwards, many telling anecdotes and shrewd judgments on persons, some scholars criticise him for his atypical annalistic form, calling his chronology less than satisfactory and his arrangement of material careless. Much of Williams work on Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, is thought to derive from an account from Coleman
18.
Malmesbury Abbey
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Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, is a religious house dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It was one of the few English houses with a history from the 7th century through to the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In the later seventh century, the site of the Abbey was chosen by Maildubh, toward the end of his life, the area was conquered by the Saxons. Malmesbury Abbey was founded as a Benedictine monastery around 676 by the scholar-poet Aldhelm, the town of Malmesbury grew round the expanding Abbey and under Alfred the Great was made a burh, with an assessment of 12 hides. In AD941, King Athelstan was buried in the Abbey, Æthelstan had died in Gloucester in October 939. The choice of Malmesbury over the New Minster in Winchester indicated that the king remained an outsider to the West Saxon court, a mint was founded at the Abbey around this time. By the 11th century it contained the second largest library in Europe and was considered one of the leading European seats of learning. The Abbey was the site of an attempt at human flight when, during the early 11th century. Eilmer flew over 200 yards before landing, breaking both legs and he later remarked that the only reason he did not fly further was the lack of a tail on his glider. The 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury was a member of the community and these lands were valued at £188 14s. In all and were assessed as 3 knights fees, the current Abbey was substantially completed by 1180. The 431 feet tall spire, and the tower it was built upon, collapsed in a storm around 1500 destroying much of the church, including two thirds of the nave and the transept. He returned the church to the town for continuing use as a parish church. The west tower fell around 1550, demolishing the three westernmost bays of the nave, as a result of these two collapses, less than half of the original building stands today. During the English Civil War, Malmesbury is said to have changed hands as many as seven times, hundreds of pock-marks left by bullets and shot can still be seen on the south, west and east sides of the Abbey walls. In 1949 the Abbey was designated as a Grade I listed building, today Malmesbury Abbey is in full use as the parish church of Malmesbury, in the Diocese of Bristol. The remains still contain a fine parvise which holds some examples of books from the Abbey library, from 1301 until the mid-16th century, the parish church of Malmesbury was St. Paul’s. This stood in what is now Birdcage Walk, in 1539 Malmesbury Abbey ceased to exist as a monastic community and in August 1541 Thomas Cranmer licensed the Abbey Church to replace St Paul’s as the parish church of Malmesbury
19.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
20.
Bosphorus
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The Bosphorus or Bosporus is a narrow, natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in northwestern Turkey. It forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia, and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey. The worlds narrowest strait used for navigation, the Bosphorus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and, by extension via the Dardanelles. Most of the shores of the strait are heavily settled, straddled by the city of Istanbuls metropolitan population of 17 million inhabitants extending inland from both coasts, together with the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus forms the Turkish Straits. This folk etymology was canonized by Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound, where Prometheus prophesies to Io that the strait would be named after her, the site where Io supposedly went ashore was near Chrysopolis, and was named Bous the Cow. The same site was known as Damalis, as it was where the Athenian general Chares had erected a monument to his wife Damalis. Historically, the Bosphorus was also known as the Strait of Constantinople, or the Thracian Bosphorus and these are expressed in Herodotus Histories,4.83, as Bosporus Thracius, Bosporus Thraciae, and Βόσπορος Θρᾴκιος, respectively. Other names by which the strait is referenced by Herodotus include Chalcedonian Bosporus, the term eventually came to be used as common noun βόσπορος, meaning a strait, and was also formerly applied to the Hellespont in Classical Greek by Aeschylus and Sophocles. Presently, the waterway is officially referred to as simply Bosphorus, the Marmara further connects to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas via the Dardanelles. A common mistake made by those who are unfamiliar with the locale is to assume the Bosphorus is a river, when it is, in fact. The exact scientific cause and date of the formation of the Bosphorus remain the subject of debate among geologists, many geologists, however, claim that the strait is much older, even if relatively young on a geologic timescale. The Symplegades were defeated when the lyrical hero Jason obtained successful passage, whereupon the rocks became fixed, between these limits, the strait is 31 km long, with a width of 3,329 m at the northern entrance and 2,826 m at the southern entrance. Its maximum width is 3,420 m between Umuryeri and Büyükdere Limanı, and minimum width 700 m between Kandilli Point and Aşiyan, the depth of the Bosphorus varies from 13 to 110 m in midstream with an average of 65 m. The deepest location is between Kandilli and Bebek with 110 m, the most shallow locations are off Kadıköy İnciburnu on the northward route with 18 m and off Aşiyan Point on the southward route with 13 m. The study of the water and wind erosion of the straits relates to that of its formation, sections of the shore have been reinforced with concrete or rubble and sections of the strait prone to deposition are periodically dredged. These channels are the main pathway for sediments to the deep sea where they form sedimentary deposits. These deposits ultimately hold not only untapped reserves of gas and oil and our initial findings show that the flow in these channels is quite different to the flow in river channels on land. Specifically, as flow moves around a bend it spirals in the direction in the deep sea compared to the spiral found in river channels on land
21.
Galata Tower
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One of the citys most striking landmarks, it is a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the skyline and offers a panoramic vista of Istanbuls historic peninsula and its environs. The nine-story tower is 66.90 m, and was the citys tallest structure when it was built, the elevation at ground level is 35 m above sea-level. The tower has an diameter of 16.45 m at the base, an inside diameter of 8.95 m. There is a restaurant and café on its upper floors which command a magnificent view of Istanbul, also located on the upper floors is a night club which hosts a Turkish show. There are two operating elevators that carry visitors from the level to the upper levels. The Romanesque style tower was built as Christea Turris in 1348 during an expansion of the Genoese colony in Constantinople, Galata Tower was the tallest building in Istanbul at 219.5 ft when it was built in 1348. That tower was on a different site and was destroyed in 1203. The upper section of the tower with the cap was slightly modified in several restorations during the Ottoman period when it was used as an observation tower for spotting fires. Evliyâ Çelebi also tells of Hezarfens brother, Lagari Hasan Çelebi, starting from 1717, the Ottomans began to use the tower for spotting fires in the city. In 1794, during the reign of Sultan Selim III, the roof of the tower was made of lead and wood, another fire damaged the building in 1831, upon which a new restoration work took place. In 1875, during a storm, the roof on the top of the building was destroyed. The tower remained without this conical roof for the rest of the Ottoman period, many years later, during the restoration works between 1965 and 1967, the conical roof was reconstructed. During this final restoration in the 1960s, the interior of the tower was replaced by a concrete structure. From the top of the tower, the first French panorama painter, Pierre Prévost, drew his Panorama de Constantinople in 1818, which was later exhibited in Paris in 1825. The panorama image shown below is composed of ten photos taken from the Galata Tower by the firm of Sébah & Joaillier. Old Galata Tower Genoese colonies List of towers Romanesque architecture List of Romanesque buildings
22.
Istanbul
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Istanbul, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the countrys economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is a city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosphorus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side, the city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents. Istanbul is one of the worlds most populous cities and ranks as the worlds 7th-largest city proper, founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE, the city developed to become one of the most significant in history. After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE, it served as a capital for almost 16 centuries, during the Roman and Byzantine, the Latin. Overlooked for the new capital Ankara during the period, the city has since regained much of its prominence. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in, arts, music, film, and cultural festivals were established at the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today. Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network, considered a global city, Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world. It hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the gross domestic product. Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion, Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years, the first known name of the city is Byzantium, the name given to it at its foundation by Megarean colonists around 660 BCE. The name is thought to be derived from a personal name, ancient Greek tradition refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Greek colonists. Modern scholars have hypothesized that the name of Byzas was of local Thracian or Illyrian origin. He also attempted to promote the name Nova Roma and its Greek version Νέα Ῥώμη Nea Romē, the use of Constantinople to refer to the city during the Ottoman period is now considered politically incorrect, even if not historically inaccurate, by Turks. By the 19th century, the city had acquired other names used by foreigners or Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu. The name İstanbul is commonly held to derive from the Medieval Greek phrase εἰς τὴν Πόλιν and this reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was reflected by its Ottoman name Der Saadet meaning the gate to Prosperity in Ottoman. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from the name Constantinople, with the first, a Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol plenty of Islam because the city was called Islambol or Islambul as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire
23.
Otto Lilienthal
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Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the flying man. He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with unpowered airplanes, newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favorably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical. On August 9,1896, his glider stalled and he was unable to regain control, falling from about 15 m, he broke his neck and died the next day,10 August 1896. Lilienthal was born on 23 May 1848 in Anklam, Pomerania Province, according to his birth certificate, his parents were Carl Gustav, a merchant, and Caroline Wilhemina née Pohle. They belonged to the St. Nikolai evangelical church community in Anklam, where he attended grammar school. Fascinated by the idea of manned flight, Lilienthal and his brother made strap-on wings and he then attended the regional technical school in Potsdam for two years and trained at the Schwarzkopf Company before becoming a professional design engineer. He would later attend the Royal Technical Academy in Berlin, in 1867, Lilienthal began his experiments on the force of air in earnest, interrupted when he served in the Franco-Prussian War. As a staff engineer in various engineering companies, Lilienthal received his first patent for a mining machine, five years later he founded his own company to make boilers and steam engines. Lilienthal published his famous book Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation in 1889, Lilienthal was born to middle-class parents. They had eight children, but only three of them survived infancy, Otto, Gustav, and Marie, the brothers worked together all their lives on technical, social and cultural projects. On 6 June 1878, Lilienthal married Agnes Fischer, daughter of a deputy, music brought them together, she was trained in piano and voice while Lilienthal played the French horn and had a good tenor voice. After marriage, they took up residence in Berlin and had four children, Otto, Anna, Fritz, Lilienthals greatest contribution was in the development of heavier-than-air flight. He made his flights from a hill he built near Berlin and from natural hills. Patent in 1894 by Lilienthal directed pilots to grip the bar for carrying and flying the hang glider, the A-frame of Percy Pilcher and Lilienthal echoes in todays control frame for hang gliders and ultralight aircraft. His total flying time was five hours, at the beginning, in 1891, Lilienthal succeeded with jumps and flights covering a distance of about 25 metres. He could use the updraft of a 10 m/s wind against a hill to remain stationary with respect to the ground, in 1893, in the Rhinow Hills, he was able to achieve flight distances as long as 250 metres. This record remained unbeaten for him or anyone else at the time of his death, Lilienthal did research in accurately describing the flight of birds, especially storks, and used polar diagrams for describing the aerodynamics of their wings. He made many experiments in an attempt to gather reliable aeronautical data, during his short flying career, Lilienthal developed a dozen models of monoplanes, wing flapping aircraft and two biplanes
24.
George Cayley
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Sir George Cayley, 6th Baronet was a prolific English engineer and is one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him to be the first true scientific aerial investigator, in 1799 he set forth the concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. He was a pioneer of engineering and is sometimes referred to as the father of aviation. He discovered and identified the four forces which act on a flying vehicle, weight, lift, drag. Modern aeroplane design is based on discoveries and on the importance of cambered wings. He constructed the first flying model aeroplane and also diagrammed the elements of vertical flight and he designed the first glider reliably reported to carry a human aloft. He correctly predicted that sustained flight would not occur until an engine was developed to provide adequate thrust. The Wright brothers acknowledged his importance to the development of aviation and he was a founding member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and was a distant cousin of the mathematician Arthur Cayley. Cayley, from Brompton-by-Sawdon, near Scarborough in Yorkshire, inherited Brompton Hall and Wydale Hall and other estates on the death of his father, captured by the optimism of the times, he engaged in a wide variety of engineering projects. He suggested that a practical engine might be made using gaseous vapours rather than gunpowder. He is mainly remembered for his studies and experiments with flying machines, including the working, piloted glider that he designed. He wrote a landmark three-part treatise titled On Aerial Navigation, which was published in Nicholsons Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, the 2007 discovery of sketches in Cayleys school notebooks revealed that even at school Cayley was developing his ideas on the theories of flight. It has been claimed that these images indicate that Cayley identified the principle of an inclined plane as early as 1792. To measure the drag on objects at different speeds and angles of attack, he built a whirling-arm apparatus. He also experimented with rotating wing sections of various forms in the stairwells at Brompton Hall and these scientific experiments led him to develop an efficient cambered airfoil and to identify the four vector forces that influence an aircraft, thrust, lift, drag, and gravity. As a result of his investigations into many other aspects of flight. His emphasis on lightness led him to invent a new method of constructing lightweight wheels which is in use today. For his landing wheels, he shifted the forces from compression to tension by making them from tightly-stretched string
25.
Jean-Marie Le Bris
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Jean Marie Le Bris was a French aviator, born in Concarneau, Brittany, who accomplished a glider flight in December 1856. A sailor and sea captain, Le Bris sailed around the world observing the flight of the albatross, although he sailed around the world, his true ambition was to fly. He caught some of the birds and analysed the interaction of their wings with air, identifying the aerodynamic phenomenon of lift, Le Bris built a glider, inspired by the shape of the Albatross and named LAlbatros artificiel. In 1856 he flew briefly on the beach of Sainte-Anne-la-Palud, the aircraft being placed on a cart towed by a horse. He thus flew higher than his point of departure, a first for heavier-than-air flying machines, reportedly to a height of 100 m, in 1868, with the support of the French Navy, he built a second flying machine, which he tried in Brest without great success. It was almost identical to his first flying machine, except that it was lighter and had a system to shift weight distribution, also in Great Britain, Stringfellow had built small unmanned gliders in 1848. However Le Bris invented more effective flight controls, which could act on the incidence of wings, Le Bris died in Douarnenez in 1872. List of early flying machines Timeline of aviation - 19th century History of aviation Félix du Temple Early flying machines Chanute, the American Engineer and Railroad Journal. 47 Cedar Street, New York,1894,1899 Gibbs-Smith, ISBN1900747529 Opdycke, Leonard E. French Aeroplanes Before the Great War Atglen, PA, Schiffer,1999. ISBN0764307525 Biography Machine reconstruction with design analysis, original site of the Jean-Marie Le Bris Association
26.
John Joseph Montgomery
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In the 1880s Montgomery, a native of Yuba City, California made manned flight experiments in a series of gliders in the United States in Otay Mesa near San Diego, California. Although not publicized in the 1880s, these flights were first described by Montgomery as part of a lecture delivered at the International Conference on Aerial Navigation at Chicago,1893. These independent advances came after gliding flights by European pioneers such as George Cayleys coachman in England, Montgomery devised different control methods for his gliders, including weight shifting for roll and an elevator for pitch. Subsequent designs used hinged, pilot-operated trailing edge flaps on the wings for roll control, in the early 1880s Montgomery began studying the anatomy of a variety of large soaring birds to determine their basic characteristics, like wing area, total weight and curved surfaces. He made detailed observations of birds in flight, especially large soaring birds such as eagles, hawks, vultures and he initially attempted to achieve manned flight with ornithopters. In 1883, he built and experimented with a series of three ornithopters but found that human strength was insufficient to generate the necessary lift and he abandoned flapping-wing flight, preferring instead to emulate soaring birds with fixed-wing craft. He reasoned that it would be possible to solve the physics of gliding and soaring flight, Montgomery first tested his concepts for the design, construction and control of gliders with small scale free-flight models. His first glider in 1883-84 had a cambered airfoil based on the curve of the seagull wing, pitch was controlled by an operable elevator and roll was controlled by pilot weight shift. This aircraft design served as the basis for three gliders over the period 1883-1886, in the spring of 1884, Montgomery made flights of up to 600 feet from the rim of Otay Mesa. During experiments with craft, Montgomery found that the glider would not respond well to side gusts. He returned to ornithology and noted how turkey vultures had significant dihedral, emulating these control methods, in 1884-1885 he incorporated hinged flaps into the trailing edge of a second glider. These were held under spring tension for automatic balance in gusts, in essence these flaps were very early ailerons. The second glider had a flat plate airfoil, considerable dihedral for stability, Montgomery devised an inclined rail system so the piloted glider could roll from the top of a hill and attain enough speed for flight. In the winter of 1885-86, Montgomery constructed a third glider and it also had a cambered airfoil modeled after the wings of a vulture, though the leading and trailing edges were turned upward slightly. The wing, spanwise, was gull shaped, controls allowed the pilot to vary the angle of incidence of the left and right wing either in unison or independently. Dihedral and an elevator were also included. Montgomery concluded that an understanding of aerodynamics was needed for the design of a proper airfoil. In an 1893 speech, Montgomery said that flights were made in these three craft during the period 1884-1886, with the assistance of at least three friends and two younger brothers
27.
Percy Pilcher
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Percy Sinclair Pilcher was a British inventor and pioneer aviator who was his countrys foremost experimenter in unpowered flight at the end of the nineteenth century. He was planning a flight with a hang glider. His memorial is in a field opposite Stanford Hall, percy Pilcher was born in Bath in 1866, and served in the Royal Navy for seven years from 1880. Thereafter he became an apprentice with the shipbuilders, Randolph, Elder and Company, in 1891 Pilcher began work as assistant lecturer at Glasgow University and took a growing interest in aviation. He built a glider called The Bat which he flew for the first time in 1895, Later that year Pilcher met Otto Lilienthal. These discussions led to Pilcher building two more gliders, The Beetle and The Gull, on 30 September 1899, having completed his triplane, he had intended to demonstrate it to a group of onlookers and potential sponsors in a field near Stanford Hall. However, days before, the crankshaft had broken and, so as not to disappoint his guests. The weather was stormy and rainy, but by 4 pm Pilcher decided the weather was good enough to fly. Whilst flying, the tail snapped and Pilcher plunged 10 metres to the ground and he is buried in Brompton Cemetery, west London. A stone monument to him stands in the field near Stanford Hall at the point where he crashed, the original Hawk has survived and is in the collections of National Museums Scotland. Pilcher is one of the aviation pioneers mentioned in the Marc Blitzstein composition The Airborne Symphony. In 2011 he was one of seven inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame. Pilchers plans were lost for years, and his name was also long forgotten except by a few enthusiasts. When the centenary of the Wright brothers flight approached, a new effort was made to find the lost work, from this it was possible to discern the general direction of his plans and the basis of his design. Based on Lilienthals work, Pilcher understood how to produce lift using winglike structures and this allowed the wings to generate much more lift without a corresponding increase in weight. Cranfield built a replica of Pilchers aircraft and added the Wright brothers innovation of wing-warping as a safety backup for roll control, Pilchers original design did not include aerodynamic controls such as ailerons or elevator. This was achieved under dead calm conditions as a safety measure
28.
Octave Chanute
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Octave Chanute was an American civil engineer and aviation pioneer, born in France. He provided many budding enthusiasts, including the Wright brothers, with help and advice, at his death he was hailed as the father of aviation and the heavier-than-air flying machine. Octave Chanute was the son of Elise and Joseph Chanut, professor at the Collège de France and he emigrated with his father to the United States of America in 1838, when the former was named Vice-President at Jefferson College in Louisiana. Octave attended private schools in New York, Octave Chanute began his training as a budding civil engineer in 1848. He was widely considered brilliant and innovative in the engineering profession, during his career he designed and constructed the United States two biggest stock yards, Chicago Stock Yards and Kansas City Stockyards. He designed and built the Hannibal Bridge which was the first bridge to cross the Missouri River in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1869, Chanute also established a procedure for pressure-treating wooden railroad ties with an antiseptic that increased the wood’s lifespan in the tracks. As a way to track the age and longevity of railroad ties and other wooden structures, Chanute retired from the Erie Railway in 1883 to become an independent engineering consultant. Chanute first became interested in watching a balloon take off in Peoria, IL. When he retired from his career in 1883, he decided to devote some leisure time to furthering the new science of aviation. Applying his engineering background, Chanute collected all available data from flight experimenters around the world and he published his findings in a series of articles in The Railroad and Engineering Journal from 1891 to 1893, which were then re-published in the influential book Progress in Flying Machines in 1894. This was the most systematic global survey of fixed-wing heavier-than-air aviation research published up to that time, at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Chanute organized in collaboration with Albert Zahm a highly successful International Conference on Aerial Navigation. Chanute was too old to fly himself, so he partnered with younger experimenters, including Augustus M. Herring, Chanute based his interplane strut concept on the Pratt truss, which was familiar to him from his bridge-building work. The Wright brothers based their designs on the Chanute double-decker. A new design of a glider was developed and flown in 1897. In 1897 he started a correspondence with British aviator Percy Pilcher, following Chanutes ideas, Pilcher built a triplane, but he was killed in a glider crash in October 1899 before he could attempt to fly it. Chanute was in contact with the Wright brothers starting in 1900, Chanute helped to publicize the Wright brothers work, and provided consistent encouragement, visiting their camp near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1901,1902, and 1903. The Wrights and Chanute exchanged hundreds of letters between 1900 and 1910, Chanute freely shared his knowledge about aviation with anyone who was interested and expected others to do the same, although he did encourage colleagues to patent their inventions. His open approach led to friction with the Wright brothers, who believed their ideas about aircraft control were unique and refused to share them
29.
Augustus Moore Herring
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Augustus Moore Herring was an American aviation pioneer, who sometimes is claimed by Michigan promoters to be the first true aviator of a motorized heavier-than-air aircraft. Herring was born in Covington, Georgia, to William F. Herring, a cotton broker. He studied in both Switzerland and Germany, before his family settled in New York in 1884, in 1885-6, as a student at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Herring was already building models of flying machines. By 1893, he had built a full sized glider – which he crashed when trying to leave the ground and he began studying glider expert Otto Lilienthals work. In 1894, Herring built a Type 11-monoplane glider based on Otto Lilienthal‘s 1893 German patent, Herring was then hired by Octave Chanute to build and test aircraft models from plans drawn up by either Herring and Chanute. Later in 1895, Samuel Pierpont Langley hired Herring to assist in his experiments, Herring was rehired by Chanute in January 1896, but continued experimenting on his own. In December 1896, he applied for a patent of a man-supporting, heavier-than-air flying machine that was powered and controllable. Herring reported to have made a flight on October 22. In 1909 Herring joined Glenn Curtiss to create the Herring-Curtiss Company, the next year, he left Curtiss and joined Starling Burgess in Marblehead, Massachusetts to design and build aeroplanes. He left Burgess after a year, following disagreements with another Burgess partner, Herring brought suit against Glenn Curtiss, claiming he had been cheated out of his property and ideas, but we have to remember that the patent Herring claimed to have did not exist. Herring did some design work for the United States Army during World War I. He died in 1926 at the age of 59, survived by his wife, ironically, four years later Herring won his suit against Curtiss with a sizeable financial award. Aviation historian Phil Scott in The Shoulders of Giants, A History of Human Flight to 1919 wrote that he does not consider Herring a candidate for the first flight claim. Scott says Herrings glider was difficult to steer and his two-cylinder, three-horsepower compressed air engine could operate for only 30 seconds at a time, Scott considers Herring as having simply expanded the traditional hang-gliding by adding an engine. Herrings defenders point out that hang-glider fliers today steer their aircraft by shifting their body and this method was superseded by the Wright Brothers system of dynamic three axis control used by all aircraft flying today. Locomotive to Aeromotive – Octave Chanute and the Transportation Revolution, by Simine Short, University of Illinois Press History Flies in Michigan. Google HTML version at the Wayback Machine, includes Michigan House Resolution No.553 which honors and thanks Herring. Michigan History -Silver Beach St. Joseph, Michigan, with story of Herring 1898 flight
30.
Aviation
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Aviation is the practical aspect or art of aeronautics, being the design, development, production, operation and use of aircraft, especially heavier than air aircraft. The word aviation was coined by French writer and former naval officer Gabriel La Landelle in 1863, from the verb avier, itself derived from the Latin word avis and the suffix -ation. The modern age of aviation began with the first untethered human lighter-than-air flight on November 21,1783, the practicality of balloons was limited because they could only travel downwind. It was immediately recognized that a steerable, or dirigible, balloon was required, jean-Pierre Blanchard flew the first human-powered dirigible in 1784 and crossed the English Channel in one in 1785. Rigid airships became the first aircraft to transport passengers and cargo over great distances, the best known aircraft of this type were manufactured by the German Zeppelin company. The most successful Zeppelin was the Graf Zeppelin and it flew over one million miles, including an around-the-world flight in August 1929. However, the dominance of the Zeppelins over the airplanes of that period, the Golden Age of the airships ended on May 6,1937 when the Hindenburg caught fire, killing 36 people. The cause of the Hindenburg accident was blamed on the use of hydrogen instead of helium as the lift gas. An internal investigation by the manufacturer revealed the coating used to protect the material over the frame was highly flammable. Changes to the coating formulation reduced the risk of further Hindenburg type accidents, although there have been periodic initiatives to revive their use, airships have seen only niche application since that time. In 1799 Sir George Cayley set forth the concept of the airplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion. Seven years later, on 14 October 1897, Aders Avion III was tested without success in front of two officials from the French War ministry, the report on the trials was not publicized until 1910, as they had been a military secret. In November 1906 Ader claimed to have made a flight on 14 October 1897. Although widely believed at the time, these claims were later discredited, however, the most widely accepted date is December 17,1903 by the Wright brothers. The Wright brothers were the first to fly in a powered and controlled aircraft, previous flights were gliders or free flight, but the Wright brothers combined both, setting the new standard in aviation records. Aircraft began to transport people and cargo as designs grew larger, the Wright brothers took aloft the first passenger, Charles Furnas, one of their mechanics, on May 14,1908. By the beginning of World War II, many towns and cities had built airports, the war brought many innovations to aviation, including the first jet aircraft and the first liquid-fueled rockets. Manufacturers such as Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft expanded production to provide aircraft for the new middle-class market
31.
Wright brothers
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They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17,1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1904–05 the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft, although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible. The brothers fundamental breakthrough was their invention of three-axis control, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and this method became and remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds. From the beginning of their work, the Wright brothers focused on developing a reliable method of pilot control as the key to solving the flying problem. This approach differed significantly from other experimenters of the time who put emphasis on developing powerful engines. Using a small wind tunnel, the Wrights also collected more accurate data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings. Their first U. S. patent,821,393, did not claim invention of a machine, but rather. They gained the skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors. Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that a vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice. From 1900 until their first powered flights in late 1903, they conducted extensive tests that also developed their skills as pilots. Their bicycle shop employee Charlie Taylor became an important part of the team, the Wright brothers status as inventors of the airplane has been subject to counter-claims by various parties. Much controversy persists over the competing claims of early aviators. The Wright brothers were two of seven born to Milton Wright, of English and Dutch ancestry, and Susan Catherine Koerner, of German. Wilbur was born near Millville, Indiana, in 1867, Orville in Dayton, Ohio, the other Wright siblings were Reuchlin, Lorin, Katharine, and twins Otis and Ida. In elementary school, Orville was given to mischief and was once expelled, the direct paternal ancestry goes back to a Samuel Wright who sailed to America and settled in Massachusetts in 1636. In 1878 their father, who traveled often as a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, the device was based on an invention of French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Pénaud. Made of paper, bamboo and cork with a band to twirl its rotor. Wilbur and Orville played with it until it broke, and then built their own, in later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the spark of their interest in flying
32.
Unpowered aircraft
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Unpowered aircraft can remain airborne for a significant period of time without onboard propulsion. They can be classified as fixed-wing gliders, lighter-than-air balloons and tethered kites and this requires a trajectory that is not merely a vertical descent such as a parachute. In the case of kites, lift is obtained by tethering to a fixed or moving object, perhaps another kite, in the case of balloons, lift is obtained through inherent buoyancy and the balloon may or may not be tethered. Free balloon flight has little directional control, gliding aircraft include sailplanes, hang gliders, and paragliders that have full directional control in free flight. The first manned aircraft were kites, balloons and gliders, man-lifting kites were used in ancient China and Japan, often as a punishment for prisoners. Unmanned hot-air balloons and toy bamboo-copters are also recorded in Chinese history, the first manned free flight was in a hot-air balloon built by the brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier in Annonay, France in 1783. The hydrogen balloon appeared at about the time and proved more practical. The first practical, controllable glider was designed and built by the British scientist, tethered balloons and, to a lesser extent, kites were developed for military and meteorological observation, however the use of kites has remained largely recreational. Free-flying ballooning using coal gas became a popular sport, gliders were used mainly for aerodynamic research until their sporting use was developed in the 1920s. During the two World Wars, tethered balloons were made and deployed in large numbers. Military assault gliders were developed during World War II, while the rotor kite was used by the German Navy for seaborne observation. Modern applications include experimental High altitude wind power generation, sailplanes, hang gliders and paragliders are all types of glider aircraft. For a glider to generate lift, it must first gain, launching a glider gives it the initial forward airspeed to start flying. This is often done by towing the aircraft into the air on a line, using either a ground-based winch or vehicle. A small foot-launched glider is launched by running downhill or stepping off a high location, if the air is rising faster than the aircraft is descending through it, the glider will gain height and additional potential energy. Sources of such rising air include warm thermals and hill ridges, in the past, unpowered military gliders have been used for military applications. Today, the majority of use of all types of aircraft is recreational. Free-flying Balloons drift with the wind, the pilot controls the altitude either by heating the air more or by releasing ballast weight
33.
Kite
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A kite is traditionally a tethered heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create lift and drag. A kite consists of wings, tethers, pulleys, and anchors, Kites often have a bridle to guide the face of the kite at the correct angle so the wind can lift it. A kites wing also may be so designed so a bridle is not needed, when kiting a sailplane for launch, a kite may have fixed or moving anchors. Untraditionally in technical kiting, a kite consists of tether-set-coupled wing sets, even in technical kiting, though, the lift that sustains the kite in flight is generated when air moves around the kites surface, producing low pressure above and high pressure below the wings. The interaction with the wind also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind, the resultant force vector from the lift and drag force components is opposed by the tension of one or more of the lines or tethers to which the kite is attached. The anchor point of the line may be static or moving. The same principles of fluid flow apply in liquids and kites are used under water. A hybrid tethered craft comprising both a lighter-than-air balloon as well as a lifting surface is called a kytoon. Kites have a long and varied history and many different types are flown individually, Kites may be flown for recreation, art or other practical uses. Sport kites can be flown in aerial ballet, sometimes as part of a competition, even Man-lifting kites have been made. The kite has been claimed as the invention of the 5th-century BC Chinese philosophers Mozi, by 549 AD paper kites were certainly being flown, as it was recorded that in that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources describe kites being used for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, the earliest known Chinese kites were flat and often rectangular. Later, tailless kites incorporated a stabilizing bowline, Kites were decorated with mythological motifs and legendary figures, some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying. From China, kites were introduced to Cambodia, Thailand, India, Japan, Korea, after its introduction into India, the kite further evolved into the fighter kite, known as the patang in India, where thousands are flown every year on festivals such as Makar Sankranti. Kites were known throughout Polynesia, as far as New Zealand, anthropomorphic kites made from cloth and wood were used in religious ceremonies to send prayers to the gods. Polynesian kite traditions are used by anthropologists get an idea of early primitive Asian traditions that are believed to have at one time existed in Asia, Kites were late to arrive in Europe, although windsock-like banners were known and used by the Romans. Stories of kites were first brought to Europe by Marco Polo towards the end of the 13th century, although they were initially regarded as mere curiosities, by the 18th and 19th centuries kites were being used as vehicles for scientific research. In 1750 Benjamin Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning was caused by electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm
34.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
35.
Colditz Cock
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The Colditz Cock was a glider built by British prisoners of war for an escape attempt from Oflag IV-C in Germany. The idea for the glider came from Lieutenant Tony Rolt, Rolt, who was not even an airman, had noticed the chapel roof line was completely obscured from German view. He realised that the roof would make a perfect launching point from which the glider could fly across the River Mulde, the team was headed by Bill Goldfinch and Jack Best. Goldfinch and Best were aided by their discovery in the library of Aircraft Design. Latimer-Needham which explained the physics and engineering and included a detailed diagram of a wing section. The glider was assembled by Goldfinch and Best and 12 assistants known as apostles, future RAF Air commodore Geoffrey D. Stephenson assisted in the project. The officers who took part in the built an false wall to hide the secret space in the attic where they slowly built the glider from stolen pieces of wood. Since the Germans were accustomed to looking down for tunnels, not up for secret workshops, nevertheless, they placed many lookouts and created an electric alarm system to warn the builders of approaching guards. Over thirty ribs had to be constructed, predominantly formed from bed slats, the wing spars were constructed from floor boards. Control wires were made from electrical wiring in unused portions of the castle, a glider expert, Lorne Welch, was asked to review the stress diagrams and calculations made by Goldfinch. The glider constructed was a lightweight, two-seater, high wing and it had a Mooney style rudder and square elevators. The wingspan, tip to tip, was 32 ft, Prison sleeping bags of blue and white checked cotton were used to skin the glider, and German ration millet was boiled and used as a form of dope to seal the cloth pores. The completed glider weighed 240 lb, the take-off was scheduled for the spring of 1945 during an air raid blackout but by then the Allied guns could be heard and the wars outcome was fairly certain. The British escape officer decided that the glider should be available for use in case the SS ordered the massacre of the prisoners as a way to get an out to approaching American troops. The glider was approaching completion when the American Army liberated the camp on 16 April 1945, one episode of the BBC TV series Colditz depicts the decision to build a glider as an escape attempt. It is also depicted in the escape from Colditz Castle in the fictional story depicted in Prisoner of War. The fate of the glider is not known, but the castle was in the controlled by the Soviets. The only evidence of its completion was a photograph, said to have been taken by an American soldier, however, Goldfinch had kept his drawings, which enabled a one-third scale model to be constructed
36.
Prisoner of war
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A prisoner of war is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the prisoner of war dates to 1660. The first Roman gladiators were prisoners of war and were named according to their ethnic roots such as Samnite, Thracian, typically, little distinction was made between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although women and children were more likely to be spared. Sometimes, the purpose of a battle, if not a war, was to capture women, a known as raptio. Typically women had no rights, and were legally as chattel. For this he was eventually canonized, during Childerics siege and blockade of Paris in 464, the nun Geneviève pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, Clovis I liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so, many French prisoners of war were killed during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In the later Middle Ages, a number of religious wars aimed to not only defeat, in Christian Europe, the extermination of heretics was considered desirable. Examples include the 13th century Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades, likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during the Crusades against the Muslims in the 11th and 12th centuries. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed, their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the status of the captive. In feudal Japan there was no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, in Termez, on the Oxus, all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain. The Aztecs were constantly at war with neighbouring tribes and groups, for the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, between 10,000 and 80,400 persons were sacrificed. During the early Muslim conquests, Muslims routinely captured large number of prisoners, aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved. Christians who were captured during the Crusades, were either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay a ransom. The freeing of prisoners was highly recommended as a charitable act, there also evolved the right of parole, French for discourse, in which a captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations, if he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who held him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. Early historical narratives of captured colonial Europeans, including perspectives of literate women captured by the peoples of North America. The writings of Mary Rowlandson, captured in the fighting of King Philips War, are an example
37.
Attempts to escape Oflag IV-C
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Prisoners made numerous attempts to escape from Oflag IV-C, one of the most famous German Army prisoner-of-war camps for officers in World War II. Between 30–36 men succeeded in their attempts, the camp was in Colditz Castle, perched on a cliff overlooking the town of Colditz in Saxony. The German Army made Colditz a Sonderlager, the one of its type within Germany. Field Marshal Hermann Göring even declared Colditz escape-proof, yet despite this audacious claim, there were multiple escapes by British, Canadian, French, Polish, Dutch, and Belgian inmates. Despite some misapprehensions to the contrary, Colditz Castle was not used as a prisoner of war camp in World War I, prisoners contrived a number of methods to escape. They duplicated keys to doors, made copies of maps, forged Ausweise, the Germans became skilled at intercepting packages containing contraband material. There was also a form of black market subterfuge whereby the prisoners used items from their Red Cross parcels to buy information and tools from cooperative guards, since the Germans allowed Douglas Bader to visit the town, he took chocolate and other luxuries with him for trading. Flight Lieutenant Cenek Chaloupka traded goods for information and even had a girlfriend in the town, David Stirling later took control of the black market operations. Once escaping from captivity, POWs still faced the challenge of negotiating their way to non-hostile territory. The Singen route into Switzerland was discovered by Dutch naval lieutenant Hans Larive in 1940 on his first escape attempt from Oflag VI-A in Soest, Larive was caught near Singen close to the Swiss border. The interrogating Gestapo officer was so confident that the war would soon be won by Germany that he told Larive of a way across the border. Larive memorized it and many later escaped using this route. This includes Larive himself, Francis Steinmetz, Anthony Luteyn, Airey Neave, Pat Reid, Escape officers were generally not themselves permitted to escape. Dutch sculptors made two clay heads to stand in for escaping officers at roll call. Later, ghosts, officers who had faked a successful escape and hidden in the castle, camp guards collected so much escape equipment that they established a Kommandants Escape Museum. Local photographer Johannes Lange took photographs of the would-be escapers in their disguises or re-enacting their attempts for the camera, along with the Lange photographs, one of the two sculpted clay heads was displayed proudly in the museum. Security officer Reinhold Eggers made them a part of Das Abwehrblatt. There was only one confirmed fatality during the attempts, British Lieutenant Michael Sinclair in September 1944
38.
Wasserkuppe
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The Wasserkuppe is a mountain within the German state of Hesse. The elevation, which is a large formation, is the highest peak in the Rhön Mountains. Between the First and Second World Wars great advances in development took place on the mountain during the interwar period. Near the summit there is still an airfield used by gliding clubs, the German name is derived from Wasenkuppe, Asenberg or Weideberg and means Pasture mountain. The Wasserkuppe lies in the administrative district Fulda 5.3 kilometres north of Gersfeld, other villages nearby are Poppenhausen and Wüstensachsen. It is part of the Rhön Biosphere Reserve, the Wasserkuppe sources the spring of the river Fulda and the river Lütter which joins the Fulda after 50 kilometres. The other peaks near the Wasserkuppe are Abtsrodaer Kuppe, Schafstein, from 1920 onwards, annual gliding competitions were held, leading to records being set and broken for height, distance and duration of unpowered flight. In 1922 Arthur Martens became the first glider pilot to use an updraft rising along a slope to stay aloft for a lengthy period. He then founded the worlds first glider pilot school at the Wasserkuppe, by 1930, the competition had become an international event, drawing pilots from all over Europe and even the United States. This started the Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft and as a result, the Wasserkuppe now had a school, workshops for building gliders. Alexander Lippisch was appointed as the director of the new society. This period saw advances in new technologies such as flying wings. In the 1930s the Ehrenhalle was constructed in the Lilienthal Haus, the centerpiece is a larger-than-life bronze figure of Otto Lilienthal lying on an tomb. It is a memorial to all pilots who have died in aviation accidents, the inscription on the memorial is Lilienthals famous last words, Opfer müssen gebracht werden roughly meaning, Sacrifices must be made. Sailplane research was also nationalised under the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug, beginning in the 1970s, the newer sport of hang gliding has also found a home there. Following the reunification of Germany and demise of the Soviet Union, in 1970, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first competition, the Deutsches Segelflugmuseum was opened on the plateau, with Neil Armstrong a guest of honour at the ceremony. The museum gained a new building in 1987, the Wasserkuppe is also the home of the Oldtimer Segelflugclub, dedicated to flying vintage sailplanes. Next to the tradition of sailplanes the Wasserkuppe has become a sports
39.
Francis Rogallo
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His patents were ranged over mechanical utility patents and ornamental design patents for wing controls, airfoils, target kite, flexible wing, and advanced configurations for flexible wing vehicles. Francis Rogallo earned an engineering degree at Stanford University in 1935. Since 1936, Rogallo worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics as a project engineer at the wind tunnels. During 1948, he and his wife, Gertrude Rogallo, invented and patented a flexible kite. They called this kite the flexible wing, Rogallo had originally invented the wing with the idea to create an aircraft which would be simple enough and inexpensive enough that anyone could have one. The wing was flown by Rogallo as a glider with small payloads hung beneath the wing. The Rogallo wing is one of the simplest airfoils ever created, a wing using the airfoil could be used to carry payloads, undercarriage devices, pilot-control assemblies, etc. The Rogallos found themselves traveling to kiting events around the Northeast to fly and promote the toy, on October 4,1957, the Russian Sputnik began beeping its message from orbit, and everything changed. The space race caught the imagination of the newly formed NASA, in 1967, projects focused on the Parasev were stopped by NASA in favor of round parachutes. As of 2003, Rogallo had new designs for kites, Gertrude died on January 28,2008. Members of the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, are called Rogallo members, mr. Rogallo was frequently seen at the park flying his own hang glider in the 1970s and 1980s. Francis Rogallo died at home on September 1,2009, in Southern Shores, North Carolina, near Kitty Hawk, lateral Control of Aircraft US Pat. Co-inventors, John M. Riebe and John G. Lowry, Flexible Wing Vehicle Configurations US Pat. And another of same date of filing, US Pat,3185412 Control for Flexible Parawing US Pat
